Stick Indians

Stick Indians are an old, Native American legend which varies across multiple tribes. There isn't a lot of fact, consistency, or certainty on the legend due to these variations. It also doesn't help that mostly all tribes believe that even speaking their name is an invitation for them to come to you, so even with the little, varying information we have, it's still not a lot of knowledge of them overall. The term "Stick Indian," is an overarching term to describe these creatures, but due to the fact that Native's won't utter their names in their languages, we really don't know any other names they actually hold.

On the website called Native Languages, it says they derive from the Pacific Northwest, which is where I'm from. Some tribes believe these are spirits that take the form of a bigfoot-shaped creature (the Salish tribe believes this). Others think they are small men, or dwarf-like forms (the Cayuse and Yakam tribes hold this belief). Another commonly accepted theory is they take shape like regular humans, with Native American qualities. In the Washington State University Online Library, in the archives and special collections section, there's an account where they refer to Stick Indians as "Stick Shower Indians." In the cascades, this account is by a hunter and his wife who claims to have encountered them. To them, the "Stick Showers" were the human-looking forms that had characteristics of Natives. I'll link the story if you'd like to read it : https://plateauportal.libraries.wsu.edu/digital-heritage/ste-ye-h%C3%A1h-mah-sic-or-stick-shower-indians-7  - It's a scan of a complete, nine-page paper on these creatures of legend, and the hunter's account starts on page two. It's an interesting read, but too long to put into here.

Stick Indians aren't to be confused with Skinwalkers, which are more so thought to be a witch who can take over the soul or disguise themselves as an animal. They're also not to be confused with the Wendigo, which are said to be humans who turned cannibalistic for a long amount of time and transformed into monstrous creatures due to their consumption of human flesh.

Stick Indians do share animalistic qualities like Skinwalkers though, in the sense that they can mimic animals to lure victims. By most accounts, Stick Indians will usually leave people alone, or play mild jokes on a tribe. However, they can turn malicious if they are threatened or challenged. According to Astonishing Legends, some tribes believe they can hypnotize victims to lure them into the woods, or just drive them completely insane. There is a lot of mental tactics Stick Indians attempt to use on their victims. Paralysis is another act of mental warfare they're able to do.

These creatures are nocturnal by most accounts, although some hunters claim they've seen these creatures during the daytime. There are various ways you can summon them, but challenging or disrespecting them is probably the most sure way to get them after you. Although, like I said before, other tribes believe just uttering their name summons them. Even actions as simple as whistling in the forest at night is an additional, hypothesized way to call their attention to you.

They're the creatures a lot of people blame for causing them to get lost in the forest. Reports have said hikers, campers, hunters, etc., suddenly get the feeling as if they're being hypnotized to go somewhere. By the time their mind clears up and they become aware again, they have no idea where they are. Some say they'll trick your mind into thinking there's a trail to go down on, often times to find a "paradise" of sorts, like a beautiful pond you want to take a cooling sip of water out of. If you can snap out of it though, you'll look around and realize there was never a trail for you to follow to begin with.

What do Stick Indians do with their victims? Use your imagination on evil actions something can do on a person, and that's all been speculated to be what they do. Eating children, or any human, making "wives" of women, slaves of people, or just killing their victims, are various guesses. Stick Indians are thought to be blamed for a lot of missing persons cases in the woods.

I bring up Stick Indians because my interest got peaked four years ago about them. I was camping with my husband and my dog at the Van Duzen, Swimmers Delight County Park. I'd camped there before when I was growing up and various times into my college years, so it's a place I'm familiar with. We picked the sight right next to the camp host, because I liked being near the bathrooms and showers. My husband and I have a routine when we camp. We look around the site for anything lost (ironically, I once found a skeleton key as a child when I went camping at the site I was staying at), sticks for kindling, and just to make sure there's no poison oak in the site. We didn't see anything. We laid out our tent, our supplies, and set up camp so to speak. We camped for a few days. Everyday we went around the site to pick up twigs for kindling, and never saw anything there. On the last day of camping, we got up to make breakfast before we started to pack up and go. We went to go look around the camp for twigs for the morning fire, and right by the firepit, we found this :

Thoroughly freaked out, each me and my husband asked if we were playing a prank on one another. We weren't. I thought it might have been a kid who placed it in our site as a joke, and that is a possibility. Although it's worth noting that it was a Monday morning, and we were one of the few people who had stayed Sunday night. One thing I know for sure though is that the figure wasn't there the last few days. We would have seen it and we vigorously checked our site everyday. 

At first I thought it was a deranged bunny, with the X's as a threat for death. It wasn't until after I moved to Charleston, about half a year later, that I even heard about Stick Indians for the first time on Reddit. After we had this knowledge, my husband and I were going through our old, camping pictures and saw this. He said "hey, it's made out of sticks, and the top looks like a feathered, Native headdress." 

Whether it was made by some malevolent, threatening wood-spirits, or a family in the site before us, you have to admit that the face is very off-putting and just plain creepy. Whatever the case, I was happy we were leaving the day we found it.

There's a lot of diverse accounts of these Native American legends, but the foundation is the same. Don't summon these creatures and have a strong mind when you're out in the woods. I hope I gave you enough facts, but you can fall down the rabbit hole yourself if you want to look up more about this legend. 

There's a lot going on in this world right now with the Coronavirus pandemic. A domino effect that stems from the virus, all the way to the world's economy. It's an anxious time. Just remember one thing. If you decide to go on a walk to relieve some stress and get some air from all the tension of COVID-19, make sure you watch out for Stick Indians.